The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-10-05
THE HATRED BETWEEN FRANCE
AND GERMANY.
From the SPECTATOR

From the SPECTATOR
| The sudden renewal of hatred between
France and Germany, though not difficult
| to explain, is one of the most remarkable
! phenomena in history. Judging priori,
! one would expect it now to be becoming
nearly extinct. 1t is seventeen years all
| but four days since Napoleon III declared
| war on Germany, more than 10 years
| since France, weeping with rage and hui
| initiation, agreed to the crushing terms of
| the Treaty of Versailles. A new genera
| ton has grown up-alI the conscripts in
| the ranks of the present army having been
| little children during the great war-a new
| form of government has been adopted, and
| a new tone pervades all politics and So
| ciety During the whole time nothing has
| occurred which should in reason have
| deepened the stinging sense of defeat for
| France has been left free, and even en-
| couraged in a career of enterprise. She
| has repaired her misfOrtunes, increased
her wealth. and has immensely enlarged
her means of self-defense. Not only has
her army been doubled in effective
strength, but her frontier has been covered
with lines of strong places, and Paris has
| been made the most unassaIlable fortress
| in the world. AS safe as she can be made,
under the Government of her own choice,
| fairly prosperous and influential, if not
| commanding in Europe, France should be
| beginning to forget her natural rancour,
and to regard Sedan as she regards Water
| loo, as disagreeable historic event. On
| the other hand, Germany, in which also a
new generation has grown up, has enjoyed
| Is years of peace, prosperity and high con-
sideration among the nations Of the world.
Her population has increased by fifth,
her organization is as strong as ever, and
she has found permanent working alliances
which may fairly be considered to double
her effective power. France has not inter-
fered with her in any way, no object dear
to Germans has been thWarted, and the
strain kept up on her resources, though
great, is not greater than her increase in
population and income. Her external
policy has been, on the whole, directed
with success, and her great Minister. still
alive and still in power, is regarded all
over the earth as the most formidable per-
son of his generation. Ships, colonies and
commerce have followed in the wake of
victory, and the German competition is
now the one dreaded by the traders of all
lands. Everything that could soOthe the
pride, or satisfy the aspirations, or reward
the patience Oh Germans has been theirs
for sixteen years; and they might be ex-
pected to regard France, If not with friend |
ship, at least with the friendly tolerance
which men feel for their equals in society. |
That, we say, might be expected; but |
that is not the situation. France and Ger |
many were probably never nearer spring
at each others threats, and this from |
new development of popular rather than /
official rancour. All hope of such an
agreement as might insure tranquility to
Europe has for the present passed away,
and the two great powers are now exhibit |
ing the jealous and angry suspiciousness
of each other which in modern Europepre-
cedes, if it does not actually produce, open
war. The truth is, new fear has entered |
into the heart of each people, and has re-
vived all previous rancours. The Ger
mans know that their strength, whether it
would enable them to conquer France or
not, is amply sufficient to resist France;
but they know also that the huge SIav
Power upon their eastward would now
take advantage of any French attack to
crafty hatred which every year begins to
make more obvious. The recent action of
Russia, the collapse of the Three Emper-
ors' League, the series of DEGREES expelling
or impOverishing the German colonies
beyond the Vistula, the accumulation of |
cavalry toward her western frontier, the
recrudescence of old SIav feeling in the |
great cities, the obvious reliance upon
France-all these things have convinced |
Germans that the Romanoffs only wait
signal which Republican France will give.
They doubt in their hearts, with all their
power and all their alliances. whether they
are strong enough to defeat two such
mighty armies acting together and know
well that if they do it can only be by an
exertion such as cripples race for a gen
Grafton. They therefore watch all develop
ments of feeling in France with close at
tention born of secret fear, and they see.
or think they see, signs that it is most hos
tile. They declare even this week, and in
semi-off1cial papers, that Germans are no
longer safe in France, and they arranged
that their Ambassador should not be pres
sent in Paris on July 18th lest he should
be insulted. They believe that France
sends spies into their fortresses, not to in
crease her knowledge against future day,
but with the intention of Immediately
utilizing the information so obtained
They assert that the vast popularity of
General Boulanger is due exclusively to
the French idea that he is to be the hero
of the revanche, and they ask why France
and Russia, natural enemies because of
the historic relation of each to Poland,
should now be acting together in every
Court of Europe. if it be not for some
secret link against a common foe, who can
only be the German nation. They read
the diatribes against them in the French
newspapers with new sense of their real